The RecruiterGuy.com Blog is written for executives, corporate recruiters, third party recruiters, and candidates. Based on recruitment, recruitment consulting, and training since 1981 across many industries, Bill Humbert is an expert Contract Recruiter Consultant,Public Speaker, and Author of "RecruiterGuy's Guide to Finding a Job".

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

A Tribute to Jackie G

Sorry that I dropped off of the Blog for a month. It was a tough January. As the beginning of my client’s fiscal year, the managers were newly motivated to fill both their old and new positions. My priority is to support my client.

Secondly, another client was fighting a losing battle with cancer.

Somehow my Blog fell to a distant third priority.

Jackie G. was the CFO of a company that I have supported three times since 2002. She was also the partner of a management consulting firm that I have worked with on and off since 1999.

Sadly, Jackie passed away on Friday, January 26 and was buried on Friday, February 2 in Akron, IA. She gallantly fought her cancer until the very end.

Jackie was one of those individuals who was disgusted with the greed of the indicted CFO’s. Integrity was a quality that you either lived or you didn’t.

You see, Jackie’s world was a world of numbers. Either the numbers were correct or they weren’t. There was no gray world. It was refreshing to be in a conversation with her. There were very, very few qualifications that she would accept. I am sure there were times that I drove Jackie crazy because recruiters deal with humans, not numbers. Therefore, our world is gray most of the time because we can’t know everything.

Jackie was a very special person. With her partners Joe and Tim, MainStream Management LLC is very client focused. Jackie made positive impacts on individuals not only in the US but in Europe and Asia, not bad for a girl from a small Iowa town.

She discovered that she had cancer in October 2006. She had surgery that week and began a journey that ended a couple of weeks ago. Instead of taking time off to enjoy her last few months, she was accepted into a stage one test to fight cancer. This meant that she was going to have to spend Christmas in the hospital in New York City.

Her family rallied around her and did everything they could to help her through her treatments. She was so proud of her daughters and grandchildren. She deeply loved her husband.

At the end of her life, Jackie was still helping future generations of people. Hopefully her autopsy will show that the treatment for cancer was beginning to work.

In Jackie’s spirit of helping people, her family established a scholarship in her name at Morningside College in Sioux City, IA for non-traditional students. It is a fitting tribute to Jackie and her life. With this scholarship, Jackie will continue to help future generations.